Getting newborn to latch on

pb_bride

My LO is 9 days old today.  Every time when I nurse him, it's a major battle to get him latch on.  What I mean is, it is a 2-person job.  DH holds his hands down (otherwise he puts them near his mouth and gets in the way), while I hold his head and get him latch on.  He thrashes his head left and right but never seem to aim for the nipple.  Is this normal for a newborn?  Does it get better?  Sometimes when DH is out or busy, it can take me 5 minutes just to fight with LO to get him latch on.  

FWIW, he has a great latch once he's on the nipple. 

Potatertot

Mine does the same thing sometimes with the wanting to keep her hands near/in her mouth. DD will also toss her head back and forth sometimes as well, but she usually does that after she's been eating for a bit and is starting to get tired or full.

Have you tried swaddling to help with the hands issue? That's the easiest way I can get DD to latch at night when she's fussy.

How do you usually position him when you're feeding? I generally have DD across my chest with my hand on the back of her neck so I can help guide her head and one hand cupping my breast to help with the latching. Maybe something like that would help with the head thrashing?

Hope this helps! 

Rhianna1981

My daughter (now 4 months) used to do that, too. Then, I read somewhere that the hands up by the face and the head thrashing was the way that newborns "orient" themselves. I think that by holding the hands down, you could possibly be contributing to MORE head thrashing because your baby is trying to find your boob/nipple with one less "tool." I found that latching on was much, much, much easier when we did it BEFORE my baby started exhibiting any hunger cues. By the time the cues came, she was so frantic that it was difficult to latch. My suggestion would be to offer the breast 1/2 hour BEFORE you think that the baby will be hungry to avoid the frantic "I'm so starving!" movements.

I also found that the more naked body of the baby (i.e. she was only in a diaper) up against my skin, the better she was at latching on-- possibly because it helped her orient herself as well?

To this day, she doesn't latch or nurse well when she is swaddled-- she needs her hands and arms to help her! 

TJ1979

Have you tried laid back nursing? It allows LO to latch on their own without struggling. Google it and watch the video.